Japanese designer builds a 'smart' wheelchair

Satoshi Sugie's four-wheel-drive chair is controlled by mouse and can talk to your phone

Garry Mcleod

This article was taken from the October 2014 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.

Japanese designer Satoshi Sugie wants to redesign the wheelchair; but first he had to reinvent the wheel. "We created a front wheel made up of 24 smaller ones, so it can make very tight turns," explains the CEO and cofounder of WHILL. The California-based startup wants to transform the everyday lives of wheelchair users -- an estimated 1.2 million of whom live in the UK.

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WHILL has created the Type-A, with two "omniwheels" mounted at the front of its 60cm-wide frame, giving a turning radius of just 71cm. The four-wheel drive can traverse grass and gravel, and is controlled by a mouse rather than a joystick. Users can also adjust the chair remotely using a smartphone app. Sugie claims the battery will last for 19km at speeds up to 10kph, and that the chair gives users a more active posture thanks to its raised sliding seat. "We wanted to combat the negative association with illness or weakness," he says. "I met a young boy who said he gave up going to school because he was embarrassed by his wheelchair."

The $9,500 (£5,600) Type-A will be released in the US this autumn; due to US Food and Drug Administration wheelchair regulations, the first 250 will be sold as personal mobility devices. A second model for medical use, called Type-M, is currently being developed. Sugie hopes to launch it in the US, Japan and Europe in 2015. "The wheelchair hasn't changed for more than 80 years," says Sugie. "That is too long."

This article was first published in the October 2014 issue of WIRED magazine